AirSpaceMag.com

The Next 10 Americans in Space

The shuttle has retired, but the astronauts have not.

Joe Acaba

(NASA)

Acaba (right) was one of three teachers chosen as educator astronauts in 2004 (Ricky Arnold and Dorothy Metcalf-Lindenburger were the others). He and Arnold flew together on the STS-119 shuttle flight, and did a spacewalk together on the mission’s ninth day to reconfigure equipment attached to the outside of the space station. A former Peace Corps volunteer, Acaba is the first person of Puerto Rican heritage to fly in space. He'll be a flight engineer on Expedition 31/32, due to launch in March 2012.